BallinEurope, the European Basketball news site

Eurosport Turkey basketball commentator Uygar Karaca was naturally on hand in Istanbul for the FIBA Euroleague Women Final Four tournament. Today, BallinEurope posts his impressions on the competition and what the future may hold for the contenders.

After long, exhausting league play in Euroleague Women, the intense traffic of the Final Eight round has now ended. Who won it in İstanbul? The Spanish. But we already know that from the de facto semifinals: Ros Casares Valencia made it 3-for-3 with the win against Spartak Moscow Vidnoje while Rivas Ecopolis clinched first place in its group by beating both the Turkish powerhouses, first Galatasaray and second Fenerbahçe. Below runs a summary of some important highlights from the tournament.

Continue Reading…

In advance of last weekend’s all-star game, the WNBA released its list of the 15 greatest players to ever play in the league. The official list runs as follows:

Continue Reading…

For posterity’s sake, BallinEurope.com passes on the message from Spanish president José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero sent to the new Euroleague Women champions, Halcón Avenida, which defeated Sparta & K last weekend for its first-ever Continental title. The telegram (really?) read as follows.

Continue Reading…

Happy Monday, everyone. To get that week started right, BallinEurope has compiled a healthy-sized video play list at which you may goggle over morning coffee. From all corners of Europe (and Portland, Oregon) came the action last week as the barrage of title-awarding begins on The Continent.

• First up: BiE offers congratulations to Žalgiris Kaunas, who took the Baltic Basketball League title over VEF Riga, 75-67. Tadas Klimavicius was the stud for the “Green White Boys” with a team-high 15 points to go with nine rebounds; Trevon Hughes was game high scorer, contributing 16 for Riga as well as five boards.

The BBL is infuriatingly short on video coverage – even on YouTube – but, um, here’s a swell clip of some rabid fans in that distinctive mode of European basketball…

Continue Reading…

A quick reminder, just in case you’re an utter hoops fanatic (or up in the wee hours of Sunday morning for some reason): FIBA TV will be showing the Nike Hoop Summit live online for free from Portland at 10pm EST – that’s right, that means 4am CET.

FIBA TV will also be broadcasting a pair of Euroleague Women Final Four games on Sunday with online afternoon broadcasts of the third-place game and 2010-11 final.

First up, Candace Parker, Maria Stepanova and Cappie Pondexter try to overcome UMMC Ekaterinburg’s “heartbreaking” loss in the semifinals in the consolation game versus Spain’s Ros Casares at 12.45pm CET.

In the finals, Sue Bird and renamed Russian superpower Sparta & K Moscow Region take on Alba Torres and Halcon Avenida at 3pm CET.

Click here to watch any of the games live on FIBA TV.

Continue Reading…

Diana Taurasi may be facing a two-year ban from competition outside the United States and has already been released from Fenerbahçe, but some of her fans in Turkey aren’t giving up the fight to get allegations of doping overturned.

The following letter was recently sent to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) by an unnamed group of supporters (the epistle even appears in media without closing or signature) complaining of some unfair charges levied against she who is/was formerly thought to be among the all-time greats:

Continue Reading…

Perhaps a worrisome Christmas it’ll be for women’s basketball great Diana Taurasi and backers of her Fenerbahçe side. In the wee hours of the morning, ESPN reported that a drug test on Taurasi had come back positive for an unspecified illegal stimulant.

Said Taurasi’s lawyer Howard Jacobs, “We’re taking it one step at a time,” Jacobs said. “I’d rather not say what it is at this stage, they’ve only tested the ‘A’ sample. Somehow it leaked over in Turkey.” (Pun surely unintentional.)

Taurasi has been suspended from the team by Turkish basketball officials in an unfortunately timed punishment: The former U Conn Huskies leader has missed the three games with the team.

Despite Taurasi’s absence, Fenerbahçe stands at 8-0 in FIBA Euroleague Women qualifying round play, having spent the offseason building a monster squad which also includes Team Serbia’s Ivana Matovic, Team Australia’s Penny Taylor, and Team Hungary’s Anna Vajda.

Continue Reading…

The best in women's ball: Taurasi of the Mercury...

“They give out awards for everything these days. ‘Greatest Fascist Dictator: Adolf Hitler’…” – Woody Allen, Annie Hall

What? You hadn’t heard that the annual ESPN ESPY Awards for Excellence in American Sport is running tonight? Well, now you know. And while shows such as these offer little in the way of relevance – quick: Name the 2007 ESPY winner in the category of “Best American Sports Team” – or spontaneous moments, BallinEurope might just tune in tonight ‘cuz BiE’s got a bone to pick.

In the category of “Best Female Athlete” this year, ESPN has nominated four: Serena Williams, Lindsey Vonn, Maya Moore and Diana Taurasi. Incredibly, Taurasi is getting just 3/1 odds at the bookmakers against Williams’ 1/2 and Vonn’s 3/1; Moore is the longshot at 7/1.

Both Williams and Taurasi have won the award in the category before: The former in 2003 and the latter in 2004, which may serve as argument enough to award the ESPY to Vonn. Unfortunately, Vonn’s nomination appears to be based essentially on one downhill run at the 2010 Winter Olympics and a Sports Illustrated photo shoot. Continue Reading…

FIBA Europe has released the list of participating teams for the 2010-11 edition of Euroleague Women. Defending champions Spartak Moscow region received an automatic entry, while 21 spots are allocated based on national federation rankings and three-year performance of the clubs in pan-European tournament play.

Two “wild card” bids were also allocated: These were won by USO Mondeville of France and last season’s Euroleague Women sensation Wisla Can-Pack Krakow.

Continue Reading…

BallinEurope so rarely gets to write about basketball issues from home base Hungary, so it was quite cheering to see a little coverage of László Ratgeber, new coach of Fenerbahçe Istanbul’s Euroleague Women’s team, on FIBA.com.

“Just ‘YouTube’ Laszlo Ratgeber and see what comes up,” encourages writer Jeff Taylor. Readers of this website know BiE needs no further encouragement and hoo boy, what a find Mr. Ratgeber makes after all. Click on the “Continue Reading” link below to witness the musical “stylings” of Ratgeber and the City Rebels.

Continue Reading…